System for providing policy based content service in a mobile network

ABSTRACT

Serving user selected content in accordance with a service policy is disclosed. The user may select content from a content source to be accessed at a mobile device. The desired content is modified as necessary such that transmission of the content complies with a policy. Alternatively, only content that complies with the policy may be made available for selection. The manner in which a policy is defined and the content provided may be determined by various factors including mobile device capabilities, user preferences, and network conditions.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present application is a Divisional Application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/011,396, entitled “POLICY BASED CONTENTSERVICE,” filed Jan. 25, 2008, which is incorporated herein byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless mobiledevice network services. More specifically, the present inventionrelates to serving user selected content in accordance with anenforcement policy.

BACKGROUND

The Internet allows users to access data remotely through a computer.Traditionally, the computer has been a desktop unit or laptop. Mobiledevices now have the computing power to access data remotely andeffectively function as a desktop or laptop.

Notwithstanding, there are numerous issues related to serving content tomobile devices. Each mobile device will have varying capabilities suchas resident software applications, screen size, memory capacity, andprocessing power. Additionally, there are many preferences that a usermay have or be subject to that when incorporated into the contentserving process, limit the ability to serve content.

Effectively managing mobile device capabilities and user preferenceswould provide improved and enhanced content access on a mobile device.

SUMMARY

A system for policy based content delivery includes a mobile device, acontent source, and a content server. The mobile device selects andreceives content. The content source provides content selected by themobile device to the content server. The content source modifies contentselected by the mobile device prior to providing the selected content tothe mobile device. The content server detects content at the contentsource. The content server provides a list of detected content to themobile device for selection by the user. The content server instructsthe content source to provide the content in a manner that is inaccordance with a policy.

A system for policy based content delivery includes a mobile device, acontent source, and a content server. The mobile device selects andreceives content. The content source provides content selected by themobile device to the content server. The content server detects contentat a content source. The content server provides a list of detectedcontent to the mobile device for selection by the user. The contentserver requests content from the content source. The content serverincludes a content reformatting engine to modify selected content in amanner that is in accordance with a policy.

A system for policy based content delivery includes a mobile device, acontent source, and a content server. The mobile device selects andreceives content. The content source provides content selected by themobile device to the content server. The content source modifies contentselected by the mobile device prior to providing the selected content tothe mobile device. The content server detects content at a contentsource. The content server provides a list of detected content to themobile device for selection by the user. The content server instructsthe content source to provide the content in a manner that is inaccordance with a policy. The content server includes a contentreformatting engine to modify selected content in a manner that is inaccordance with a policy.

A method for providing content in accordance with a policy includesdiscovering available content at a content source, requesting contentlocated on a content source from a mobile device, processing the requestfrom the mobile device at a content server, requesting content source toprovide content in a manner that conforms to the enforcement policy, andtransferring the requested content from the content source in a mannerthat conforms to the enforcement policy.

A computer program is stored on a computer readable storage medium. Theprogram is executable by a processor for performing a method forproviding user selected content to a mobile device. The method includesdiscovering available content at a content source, requesting contentlocated on a content source from a mobile device, processing the requestfrom the mobile device at a content server, requesting content source toprovide content in a manner that conforms to the enforcement policy, andtransferring the requested content from the content source in a mannerthat conforms to the enforcement policy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system in which metadata is sent from avariety of content sources to a content server for content discovery.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary system in which user selected content issent from a content source through a policy based content server to amobile device.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary system in which user selected content issent directly from a content source with a connector to a mobile device.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary system in which user selected content issent from a content source with a connector through an approved externalproxy to a mobile device.

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary method for policy based service of content.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system 100 in which metadata is sent througha network 190 from a variety of content sources to a content server 120for content discovery. Mobile device 110 requests content from a contentsource 115 as may be identified through a catalog, listing, or web pagesassociated with content source 115 or content server 120. Content source115 may include a personal computer 170 or content portal such as Yahoo!Video 150 or YouTube Video 160.

Content server 120 receives metadata 195 from the content source 115 anddetermines the information concerning the requested content such as filesize, format, encoded bit rate, and DRM limitations. Policy 130 is anyone or combination of service provider restrictions, mobile devicecapabilities, and user preferences. The content server 120 uses policy130 to identify what type of requested content may be transferred to themobile device 110.

Policy enforcement engine 180 ensures that requested content transferredto the mobile device 110 meets the requirements of the policy 130. Thisenables the service provider, for example, to enforce the service policyon the user's transmissions. The content server 120 may then instructthe content source 115 whether the requested content should be provided.

For example, the requested content may be a still image. The contentsource will send metadata 180 to the content server 120 indicating, forexample, the format and file size of the still image. In this example,the still image may have a file size of 4 MB and be in the bitmapformat. The content server 120 will then use policy 130 and policyenforcement engine 180 to determine whether the requested content can beprovided “as is” from the content server 115. If not, the policyenforcement engine 180 and content reformatting engine 135 may attemptto reformat the content prior to transfer to the mobile device in orderto comply with policy 130.

In this example, the policy 130 may limit the file size to 2 MB and thepicture format to jpeg. The content server 110 will instruct the contentsource 115, if possible, to provide the requested content as 2 MB jpegfile. If not available as a 2 MB jpeg, the policy enforcement engine 180may instruct content reformatting 135 to modify the content that isavailable for delivery in compliance with the policy 130. In othersituations, the policy 130 may limit the bit rate at which the transferoccurs, as well as resolution, total bandwidth, and transfer protocol.

Policy 130 may be modified or set according to personal userpreferences. The user may add additional limits on the manner in whichcontent is or is not provided to the mobile device 110. For example, theuser can control the quality of the audio playback and the audio formatto use when receiving audio content.

In FIG. 1, the personal computer 170 includes a connector 140. Theconnector 140 is a software application that allows a user to configurethe personal computer 170 to provide content to the mobile device 110via content server 120. The connector 140 may be configured by the userto allow desired folders and files on the personal computer to beaccessible to the mobile device. In other embodiments, the connector 140may be connected to other content sources. Personal computer 170, in analternate embodiment, may include the policy 130, policy enforcementengine 180, and content reformatting engine 190.

The content server 120 may be configured to reformat downloaded digitalcontent using the content reformatting engine 135. The contentreformatting engine 135 may decode, encode, transcode, or resampledigital content. The content reformatting engine 135 may initiatereformatting of the downloaded content in response to a command issuedby the policy enforcement engine 180 or by the mobile device 110.Reformatting may also occur automatically according to user preferencesreflected in the policy 130. The content reformatting engine 135 mayinclude copying a file while changing a file format from one format toanother, or while changing a bit rate or resolution such that the copyhas a different bit rate or resolution than the original.

In one example, the content reformatting engine 135 reformats an MPEG-2encoded video file to a 3GP encoded video file by copying the MPEG-2encoded video file and saving the copied video file in the local contentstore 132 as a 3GP encoded video file. In a second example, the contentreformatting engine 135 reformats an AVI encoded video file having aresolution of 720 by 480 pixels to an AVI encoded video file having aresolution of 360 by 240 pixels. In another example, the contentreformatting engine 135 reformats an MPEG-4 encoded video file having aframe rate of approximately 30 frames per second (fps) to an MPEG-4encoded video file having a frame rate of approximately 15 fps. Byfurther example, the content reformatting engine 135 reformats an MP3encoded audio file having a bit rate of 192 kilobits per second (kbps)to an MP3 encoded audio file having a bit rate of 128 kbps.

The content reformatting engine 135 may also reformat the content basedupon a factor dependent on the mobile device 110, a user-selectablepreference, or a preset preference. The factor dependent on the mobiledevice 110 may further include supported codecs (e.g., MP3 and WMA), bitrates (i.e., bits per second), sampling rates (i.e., samples persecond), sample resolutions (i.e., bits per sample), and video framerates (i.e., frames per second). The factor dependent on the mobiledevice 110 may also include processing power, memory size, freeavailable memory, screen size, and screen resolution.

The reformatting may be performed such that the reformatted digitalcontent transferred to the mobile device 110 corresponds to an optimaldata size range as determined by factors listed above. As an example,the downloaded content may be reformatted to more compact file sizeswhen free available memory at the mobile device 110 is low.Alternatively, the downloaded content may be reformatted to larger filesizes when free available memory at the mobile device is high. Asanother example, the downloaded content may be reformatted to a lowerresolution screen size when the mobile device 110 is a cellulartelephone than when the mobile device 120 is a PDA. The downloadedcontent may be reformatted to resolution somewhat larger (finer) thanthe screen size resolution to allow the downloaded content to be zoomedand cropped to a reasonable degree at the mobile device 110.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary system 200 in which user selected content issent from a content source 230 through the policy based content server220 to a mobile device 210. The policy based content server 220corresponds to the content server 120 of FIG. 1. In this embodiment,policy enforcement occurs at the policy based content server 220.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary system 300 in which user selected content issent directly from a content source with connector 330 to a mobiledevice 310. In this embodiment, the policy enforcement occurs at thecontent source with connector 330 as the content is not sent backthrough the policy based content server 320. A content source withconnector 330 may be akin to the coupling or integration of theconnector 140 and personal computer 170 in FIG. 1. A connector coupledto or integrated with the content source may perform policy enforcementat the content source. In some embodiments, content selection may bypassthe policy based content server 320 and occur by and between mobiledevice 310 and content source 330.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary system 400 in which user selected content issent from a content source with connector 430 through an approvedexternal proxy 440 to a mobile device 410. The policy enforcement mayoccur at the content source 430 or the external approved proxy 440. Useof the external approved proxy 440 may be subject to the proxy having aconnector application. The approved external proxy 440 may be a serverremote from the service provider. Alternately, the external proxy 440may be a separate server located at the same data center as the contentbased content server 420.

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary method for policy based service of content.Step 510 is the discovery of available content on a content source. Step520 is the requesting of content located on a content source from amobile device. Step 530 is the processing of the request from a mobiledevice at a content server. Step 540 is requesting the content source toprovide content in a manner that conforms to a service policy. Step 550is the optional reformatting of the selected content as necessary toconform to the enforcement policy. Step 560 is the transferred of therequested content from the content source in a manner that conforms tothe enforcement policy to the mobile device.

While the present invention has been described in connection with aseries of preferred embodiment, these descriptions are not intended tolimit the scope of the invention to the particular forms set forthherein. To the contrary, the present descriptions are intended to coversuch alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be includedwithin the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclaims and otherwise appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art.

1. A system to deliver content to a mobile device based on a policy, thesystem, comprising: a content source configured to provide contentselected at the mobile device to a content server, the content sourcefurther configured to modify content selected by the mobile device priorto the content server providing the selected content to the mobiledevice; and a content server configured to discover content at a contentsource and provide a list of detected content to the mobile device forselection, the content server further configured to instruct the contentsource to provide the content in accordance with a policy, the contentserver including a policy enforcement engine configured to implement apolicy; wherein, the policy includes a service provider policy toenforce service policy on the mobile device.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the policy further specifies at least one of a file format andfile size.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy includes mobiledevice capabilities.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the policyincludes user preferences.
 5. The system of claim 1, further comprisinga proxy configured to transfer content to the mobile device.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the content source is a personal computerincluding a connector to provide user selected content to the mobiledevice.
 7. A system to deliver content to a mobile device based on apolicy, the system, comprising: a content source configured to providecontent selected by the mobile device to a content server; a contentserver configured to discover content at a content source and provide alist of detected content to the mobile device for selection, the contentserver further configured to request content from the content source,the content server including a content reformatting engine configured tomodify the selected content in accordance with a policy; wherein, thepolicy specifies a bandwidth at which transfer is to occur.
 8. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the selected content is transferred to themobile device from the content source via the content server.
 9. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the selected content is transferred to themobile device directly from the content source.
 10. The system of claim7, wherein the policy includes a service provider policy.
 11. The systemof claim 7, wherein the policy includes mobile device capabilities. 12.The system of claim 7, wherein the policy includes user preferences. 13.A system to deliver content to a mobile device based on a policy, thesystem comprising: a content source configured to provide contentselected by the mobile device to a content server, the content sourcefurther configured to modify content selected by the mobile device priorto providing the selected content to the mobile device; a content serverconfigured to discover content at content source and provide a list ofdetected content to the mobile device for selection, the content serverfurther configured to instruct the content source to provide the contentin accordance with a policy, the content server including a contentreformatting engine configured to modify selected content in accordancewith the policy; wherein, the policy includes a service provider policy.14. The system of claim 13, wherein the policy specifies a video fileformat.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the reformatting engine isapplied on the content server to reformat the video content from a videofile having a first frame rate to a video file having a second framerate.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein the policy further specifies abit rate.
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein the policy furtherspecifies a DRM limitation.
 18. The system of claim 13, wherein thepolicy encompasses a service provider policy.
 19. The system of claim13, wherein the policy encompasses mobile device capabilities.
 20. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the policy encompasses user preferences.